Three takeaways from Nebraska's 2022-23 Big Ten Conference schedule
Nebraska’s 2022-23 schedule is now complete, as the Big Ten formally announced its men’s basketball conference slate on Thursday morning.
Here are three of our biggest takeaways from the Huskers’ 20 league matchups and how they pair with a non-conference schedule loaded with high-major opponents…
Huskers get thrown right into the fire
When the initial Big Ten matchup pairings were announced a while back, one of the positives was that Nebraska only had to face Indiana, the consensus league favorite, one time.
Well, that one meeting ended up being the very first game on the Huskers’ conference slate, as they will travel to Bloomington on Wednesday, Dec. 7.
As if that weren’t enough, NU will face another of the Big Ten’s best when Purdue comes to town three days later on Saturday, Dec. 10.
To put the cherry on top, Nebraska now has two conference title contenders sandwiched between the ACC/Big Ten Challenge home game vs. Boston College (Nov. 30) and its annual rivalry at top-10 Creighton (Dec.4), and then its trip to face Kansas State in Kansas City on Dec. 17.
That’s about as daunting of a December as you’re going to find.
Hitting the road early
Nebraska won’t have much time to recover from that grueling December, as it opens the 18-game Big Ten grind with six of its first 10 games on the road.
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The Huskers will travel to Michigan State, Minnesota, Purdue, Penn State, Maryland, and Illinois in January. Even better, their four home games that month are against Iowa, Illinois, Ohio State, and finally Northwestern.
However, that means that the back half of NU’s league slate is heavy at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Starting with a matchup vs. Penn State on Feb. 5, Nebraska finishes the regular season with five of its final eight games at home.
That includes a three-game homestand with Maryland, Minnesota, and Michigan State before ending the year at Iowa.
For fans, the schedule got even unfriendlier
Nebraska fans already got a tough deal this year with Nebraska only playing 15 home games, its fewest since 2002-03. One of those games (Queens University of Charlotte) wasn’t even included in the season-ticket package since it’s part of the Battle in the Vault event.
The Huskers’ home slate didn’t get much more appealing when the conference schedule was released.
Nebraska ended up with just three weekend (Friday/Saturday) home league games – vs. Purdue on Saturday, Dec. 10; vs. Wisconsin on Saturday, Feb. 11; and vs. Minnesota on Saturday, Feb. 25.
Four Big Ten home games are on either Tuesday or Wednesday night. Yuck.
